It's ironic that people are considering paramyxoviridae... I had posted this a few days ago:
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/865461/posts?page=34#34
34 posted on 03/15/2003 12:35 PM PST by bonesmccoy (Defeat the terrorists... Vaccinate!)
These reports of infectious disease necessitating a "global" health emergency are more political than the President's attempt to immunize health care workers against small pox.
The fact of the matter is that this disease has NOT spread to the US yet. CDC is sending investigators to other locations in order to gather data.
My suggestion is that these foreign medical centers need to run tests for Respiratory Syncytial Virus.
RSV peaks every year in the winter. We have seen an unusually wide peak in cases this year (meaning more cases for a slightly longer period of time than last year).
The disease pops up around November and lasts until March.
It creates a dry, hacking cough a few days after exposure. The virus is VERY contagious and can spread by contact or respiratory droplets.
Until a real medical lab can run real samples from the real patients, these reports are sensationalistic nonsense.
Do not fret about these types of viruses or pathogens.
US investigators, when appropriately focused, can figure out the germ in a remarkably short order.
Is it possible that the use of nebulizers to treat the pneumonia patients might be contributing to the spread in hospitals?
And, interestingly, there are always lots of Japanese and South Korean tourists in Hong Kong (or would have been when this thing was getting wound up). Why no cases of Japanese or South Koreans returning home with the illness?